Faces of FASHIONABLE: Elsabeth

This is a part of our Faces of FASHIONABLE series. The inspirational women behind our products have courageous stories of overcoming, and we are honored to share them with you.

Next up: meet Elsabeth. We have been working with her for almost 3 years, but she has been in the weaving industry for the last 3 decades! While they mostly create our hand-woven scarves and blankets, her business specializes in woven wool rugs and home decor products and we look forward to developing into that category with them in the future.

Elsabeth began as a social worker, helping out the disenfranchised around her - prisoners, the elderly, and women who were seen as un-valuable. She realized they each had skills (or could easily be taught skills) and invested in teaching and training. Over the years, she has trained more than 70 girls how to weave, and three of those have gone on to start their own weaving businesses!

Tell us more about your role. My role is designing and managing the place, and I really enjoy my work. My main vision is to empower women and young men and my main pleasure is to make a difference in somebody's life.

When you’re not hard at work, what do you like to do in your free time? I love reading my bible on my free time. The word of God is my life. And I make sure my children and grandchildren follow that.

We believe that every one of us understands what it means to overcome, and we are all ABLE to find purpose in the work we do. What is something YOU are ABLE to do because of your work?My work is helping me in answering my desire in life.

The ladies at Elsabeth's business in Ethiopia hand-weave the beautiful scarves we just launched for Spring: the Shegaw Scarf, Aster Scarf, and Girma Scarf (all named in honor of one of the heroic women who work there).